Greed Knows No Bounds
by FreeVirtualHugs
Summary: Charlie grew up hearing about the Fullmetal alchemist, what happens when his life flips upside down and his hero brings trouble with him through the gate? Rated T for... bad language...
1. 1 Otobouros

**a/n: Hey guys! So um, I gave up on this other FMA fanfic I wrote (sorry!) because I came up with this idea instead. ALSO! Those people who do not for the life of them enjoy OC fics, STOP NOW. **

**Thanks ever so much! **

**READ ON!**

_

I remember, when I was little, my grandmother would tell me all sorts of tales about a world where the laws of Alchemy triumphed over physics. She would tell me all sorts of crazy stories about monsters and heroes, The military and it's secrets but there was always one person she referred to in particular, how he would do anything to restore something he lost, the adventures he and his brother shared were ones that kept me entertained for hours, I'd always wanted to be just like him. Just like the Full metal Alchemist.

It's been at least 1 year since my grandmother has passed away, but today's the day to look forwards to a brighter and better year, as I officially turn 16 today.  
"Hey Charlie!" Alex yelled as he ran to catch up with me. "Happy birthday!" He pulled out a rather large card smothered in countless goofy images of me most of which I'm not even looking at the camera, sort of mid-speech ridiculous look.  
"Oh hey!" I laughed "Thanks man!" We exchanged wide grins and made our way into school. The Seniors looked at us with the usual we're better than you sneer, we ignored it, we had better things to do.

"Charlie!" Tahnee and Leah shouted as they ran toward Alex and me, they had massive grins and wrapped boxes. "Happy birthday!" They hugged me at the same time, but they were squeezing so hard I was going pretty purple.  
"Guys…I…need to… breathe!" I panted as they released me I stumbled a bit, trying to regain my senses. These girls are not to be crossed; both have the strength of an anaconda I swear. Leah took tahnee's box and handed them both to me and said:  
"NOW BOW DOWN AND OPEN THEM!"  
Everyone stopped as a moment of 'what the-?' swept across everybody's minds, only to be broken by my muffled laughter. I'm not gonna lie, my laugh is incredibly evil, it's just effortless. So then because my laugh is just so outrageous, other people laugh at me, which makes me laugh more just resulting in pure noise. We were all laughing for so long that our school bell eventually shut us up.

"Where's Al?" I asked, I noticed that he wasn't here, which was unusual as he's hardly ever sick.  
"Dunno, but hey! We have Science now! Cheer up!" Alex grinned with perfect teeth.  
"Yeah of course, it's your favourite subject. You're good at it. I don't even know how I'm in the top class with you, must've gotten my name mixed up with someone else." I shoved his shoulder as we made our way to the science lab. When we crossed over the school bridge, there was an ill air to the atmosphere, almost as if it were about to rip apart, forcing people to hurry across the bridge.  
"Hey, Charlie is it just me or is there something not quite right with this bridge?" Alex looked around, then glanced at his feet. "It feels as if it's gonna crumble away from beneath me."  
"It's not just you. I feel it too." I looked to his left and saw what I thought was a disembodied eye. It was wide open and an unusual colour. I froze, something about it could paralyse an army with fear. 

"Dude? What's up? You're seriously freaking me out." Alex cautiously shifted his bright blue eyes to his side, then flipping around to see nothing. "You need an eye exam." He laughed  
"no… I think I need to go to a mental hospital." I laughed "But everybody tells me that daily"  
We then quietly walked to our classroom and that image of the eye kept making me panic.

As our science class began, waves of panic and nausea got more violent and more frequent. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but it was getting worse.  
"Boys, pay attention, you have to get this right. If you spill any of this acid onto your skin, it will burn a hole straight through." Our teacher said as he carefully poured the green acid into a beaker full of Copper carbonate. As he continued talking, I began seeing all sorts of black arms protruding from shadows, and knew something was coming and that it wasn't good. "Okay now it's your turn. Get into your designated groups."

I remember I was with Alex and 2 others, but since they were wusses when it came to dangerous chemicals I did it for them. It was then, when I was pouring the acid that numerous black hands began scratching at my right hand, causing a fierce burning sensation.  
"What the f-!" I yelled and dropped the powerful acid all over the hand they were scratching at.  
"Charlie!" The teacher yelled at me. He ran over, my head began to spin like crazy causing me to lose my balance and collapse to the floor, an Incredible Tearing feeling was eating at my hand removing layer after layer of skin. Nausea swept over me, forcing me to be sick numerous times until a sharp spark lighted on my hand and the burning stopped… I was still dizzy and constantly being sick, but when I looked at my hand a strange birthmark appeared, it looked like a serpent devouring it's own tail.

"Outoboros…?" I whispered as the darkness swept over me.

**That's it for chappie number 1!**

**Please review! Would be greatly appreciated!**


	2. 2 though the gate

"Outoboros…?" I whispered as the darkness swept over me.

The darkness was chilling, it made me keep looking over my shoulder, it felt like something was just going to stab me if I didn't keep looking. I walked around for a bit until that eye was suddenly in front of me, I fell back wards and saw two doors materialise in front of me. A serious commotion sounded like it was coming from inside, Many voices screaming tangling in each other until the gates dislodged slightly from the inside, I ran back, nearly falling flat on my face numerous times, I looked back to see a boy about my age, with long blond hair run out, he was really badly injured, when he collapsed, more people came out after him,

"BROTHER! Brother please! Don't die! I'm coming!" A young voice screamed as a similar looking boy ran out and began franticly looking for someone, until he was engulfed into darkness,

"Young master! Please wait! You don't know what's there!" Another boy my age burst through the gate with long black hair and a very sharp looking sword.  
"Edward!" He shouted "Where are you…?" his voice quietened, then he looked directly at me. He seemed rather shocked, but then again I was amazed that there seem to be so many people inside that gate.  
"Young master get out of the way!" Two ninja looking people burst through and he adopted a fighting pose, there was now at least 3 people and all of them were facing the gate, and a deep rumbling could be heard from within, this is when my feet started to move by themselves as the panic of what might come through I sprinted to the doors of the gate, the three people were shocked to see someone come out, I hit one door with such force that it slammed shut immediately and when I went to the other side, the boy with long hair looked at me and said "Edward?"  
I faintly heard him, but I was panicking so bad that I was shaking and couldn't close the next door. "Well don't just stand there, help me shut the gate!"

"Right!" He said and he began to shove the door in hopes of closing it.  
"I hear you three can sense our kind." A menacing voice said from very close behind the door. "What a troublesome ability."  
"Now wrath, don't kill them. Our order from father was to capture them alive and use them to help us find other homunculi like us." A chilling voice echoed from the darkness as I saw 5 figures appear in the dim light, a small innocent-looking boy, a taller much older man in an army uniform, A smaller squatter man, what appeared to be a teenager with long greenish hair and finally a colossal monster all of which had incredible shark-like grins.  
"We'll be back for you." They all said as they slid into the darkness and the door slammed shut.

"Charlie! Can you hear me?" Alex's voice echoed into my mind, making everything ring. "Charlie!"  
"YES? Do you ever shut up?" I snapped making alex fall back, he rolled then hit his head on the bench behind him. I was lying on the floor of the science laboratory with only Alex next to me.  
"Geez! I was trying to help!" He now had a large lump jutting out from his messy red hair. I jolted up to face him.  
"Dude, I saw him!" I was extremely excited,  
"Saw who?" He sounded interested now.  
"The full metal alchemist!" I remembered seeing that he appeared to be on the verge of death, with blood pouring out of deep gashes all over him. My expression turned quite sad, as I thought of how I just watched, I should've helped.  
"Oh that's right everybody left for their excursion while you were knocked out. And the teacher's gone to get some help." Alex sighed as he stood up. "May aswell go and get you to sick bay."  
"No wait. I want to check something first." A fumbled a bit then ran straight for the bridge.  
"Where do you think you're going? Charlie! HEY!" Alex was running after me, he could catch up easily, he was the fastest runner in the entire school after all.

I stopped before we got on the bridge and my hunch was right, the bloodied up alchemist was lying on the ground, semi-conscious in a puddle of blood.  
"Hey!" I shouted "You okay?" I ran up beside him, and saw that he was only just moving.  
"I've been better." He smiled faintly and I knelt down to him Alex was almost in shock seeing all that blood.  
"I wouldn't touch him if I were you." A familiar chilling voice was heard from the school building. There wasn't anybody there. "Up here genius."  
I looked up to see that green haired teen from the gate, his hair reminded me of a palm tree the way is hung down in 'leaves'. He was on top of the roof, the sun casting a long ominous shadow across the bridge. He jumped down about 15 feet to the bridge and looked as if he was going to kill someone.  
"You did this!" Alex shouted, he wasn't afraid of some kid. "Come 'ere!" Alex sprinted towards the boy and whipped a single hand into a fist and punched him in the face with all his might.  
"Heh. Is that all you got?" The boy smirked and he raised one leg in advance of kicking Alex  
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" I yelled and shoved Alex out of the way only to have him kick me instead. I was sent flying, he kicked me with such force that I was sent to the other side of the bridge, denting the school wall with an imprint of my back.

"Bastard!" Alex yelled as he threw more and more well aimed punches at the boy. "Who do you think you are?" Alex kicked him extremely hard with a powerful karate kick propelling the boy off of the ground about a foot and Alex realised his chance to take him out, he turned and thrust his leg into the boy's stomach sending him a fair way straight into the potted plants, shattering them spilling soil all over the floor.  
"Charlie? You okay?"" He looked shocked, I had blood running down my chin, I spat it out and wiped my mouth.  
"Fine. You?"  
He grinned and slammed his fist into his hand.  
"You ready to beat this guy senseless?"  
"Sure am."

I ran for where the boy was lying but he wasn't there.  
"You want to know who I am?" His voice scratched from behind me, I turned only to have him elbow me in the stomach, winded I knelt to the ground only to have him grab me by the shirt and lift me up above eyelevel. He shifted his grip to tighten around my neck,  
"Charlie!" Alex yelled as he ran in  
"Stop!" I choked "I can handle this!"  
The boy laughed as his grip got tighter and tighter "I'm" a wide shark like grin swept across his face and the monster within made itself known.  
"A HOMUNCULUS!" He screamed as he threw me at Alex forcing the both of us to collide and narrowly miss Edward who was now unconscious.

"Alex! We need to get Edward out of here!" I yelled to see that Alex had hit his head hard enough to knock him out.  
"Shit!"  
A forceful fist smacked into my face, but this time I held my ground, grabbed the monster's wrist and flipped him around to throw him at the wall, he flipped in mid air and landed neatly, as this happened I managed to get next to him and Hit him even further and he dodged the first punch and I kicked him instead.  
"Yes!"  
He was slammed into the ground making an incredible dent in the bridge.  
Maniacal laughter seeped through the beast's mouth as he stood back up. "It's been a long time since I last died!" He looked me dead in the eye and licked the blood off his cheek.  
"Why are you here?" I asked  
"I'm here to find the newest edition of our group." He smirked.  
"There's nobody here who would be of interest to you. Unless you want to die again, I suggest you leave." I raised my left fist to show him I meant what I said.  
"Oh but the contrary, I'm looking at my prize right now." A wicked grin slid across his face as he began to laugh maniacally "I noticed that when I kicked you earlier, it would've put you into a concussion at least… how interesting!"  
"Shut up!" I lunged towards him and threw various punches at him, he dodged every single one.  
"Haven't you noticed that no matter how hard you get hurt, you heal instantly?" He yelled as he twisted and turned. I punched him extremely hard cracking a few teeth "No? Then let me show you!"

A quick twist followed by a powerful kick that resembled Alex's one that got him before, sent me flying cross the entire bridge crashing through the glass windows of the science classroom and into the toxic chemical chamber. Numerous bottles broke, burning through my skin, getting into my eyes, into the numerous fresh cuts and deep gashes from the window. The worst pain was coming from my chest, I looked down, an enormous glass shard had severed my chest open leaving me able to see my ribs.  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" I screamed as I was blinded and severed more and more by toxic chemicals and glass.  
The monster casually walked through the hole that was made by my crashing through the window and smiled wickedly at when he saw my mangled self screaming and squirming trying to escape the pain. "aha..haha…Hahahaahaaa! WAHAHAHAHHAAAA!" He began laughing as the screams got louder and louder, the pain more and more intense until a wave of rage swept over me…

The monster was abruptly pinned to the wall. A black claw was crushing his neck as he struggled to breathe, blue flashes of light were seen as the pain faded away into nothing.  
"You…" I panted "I'll never… NEVER" My grip tightened as I folded my fist in preparation to pound the crap out of him, "NEVER EVER FORGIVE YOU!" a black, armour like substance was now covering my entire being, excluding my head, as I slammed The monster through the wall and tumbling past the unconscious Alex and Edward.  
He was gasping for air and coughing up blood, I didn't care, I was overcome with rage, the armour extended slightly to make my right arm into a sword, with incredible speed in a matter of seconds I was next to the monster.  
"THIS IS FOR MY FRIENDS!" I slid the sword straight through the monster in a gruesome fashion forcing him to collapse.

"Amazing… heheh…" He stood back up and spat blood out of his mouth, "I am looking forward to our next encounter… Greed." The shark like grin slid across his face and a similar smile swept across my face as well  
"Same goes for you bitch." I threatened  
"The name's envy. I hope we can become friends." He said with sarcasm in his voice and my reply was the 'up yours' finger. He snickered and flipped numerous times to disappear behind the main building.

"Heh, one thing's for sure." I rubbed my neck, it was kinda stiff. "I'm not doing that again."

**Wooo! Another chapter.**

**Lol so badass. I enjoy writing violent stuff.**


	3. 3 The new greed

"Heh, one thing's for sure." I rubbed my neck, it was kinda stiff. "I'm not doing that again."

I looked down at my hands, they were claw like in appearance, and jet-black. They were hard and no mater what I hit or how hard I hit it, they didn't break or hurt, from my knowledge of science I managed to conclude that this was my body's carbon that had hardened it's molecular structure to form this impenetrable armour. I calmed myself and saw the armour fade away, leaving my normal, fairly tanned skin behind.

"Oh shit…" I realised something that is going to cause some grief for my wallet… and TV privelages. "I COMPLETELY WRECKED THE SCHOOL!" I had my hands on my head, I messed up my short blond hair in disbelief of what had just happened, Homunculi, why did he call me 'greed'? SO many questions! But first, I had to get medical help for Edward and Alex. Alex was still out cold, but he showed some signs of movement, so he must be coming to, but not fast enough! I needed something to wake him up… water? No, smelling salts! No. I wouldn't know where to find them. A mischievous smile spread from ear to ear as an idea came into my mind. I took of my shoe, then slipped the sock off of my foot and waved it in front of Alex's face. A foul expression slid onto his face that turned into a massive frown. His hand jolted out to push the hand with the sock into my face.  
"LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!" He was pushing it into my face for a while and shouting at me as well.  
"Alex! Hey, I'll put it back on so you don't have to smell it." I laughed "You okay man?"  
He looked surprised and he jolted up and looked around to see all of the damage caused from the fight, also he looked in Edward's direction, he needed medical help immediately.  
"I'm fine but we should probably help Him." He ran over to him and fumbled a bit but gained control again.  
"Alex, don't push yourself you've had it rough to." I put my hand on his shoulder he nudged it off,  
"If I can't handle this then," He clenched his fist, "I'll just have to get stronger."  
"Okay fine." He wasn't one to easily change his mind, he was strong, stubborn and incredibly intelligent, one of the smartest guys in the school. He slung Edward to his feet and had some trouble trying to carry him, so I took him and had him on my back in a piggyback. Alex held out his shirt, it was now covered in blood and there was a considerable puddle where he had been lying.  
"We'd better hurry." Alex said  
"Right." I nodded and we sprinted to the Sick bay.

"Oh god!" Ms O'Gorman shouted as she looked at the three of us. "I'll call triple 0!"  
"No! There's no need for that. He's just got some gashes that need to be bandaged up and you may want to check for anything else." Alex said.  
"What about you two? Your clothes are all torn and covered in blood!" She yelled "What exactly have you been up to? Is he even a student here?"  
"Look, we just need to get him some medical help, is that so wrong?" I yelled "If you want to know what happened then help him first!"  
She was stunned, I was not one to raise my voice at adults, but heaps at my friends but that's 'cause nobody shuts up. It was an awkward silence until she unlocked the door to sick bay, there was only one person in there, it was Alfie.  
"Hey guys…" He mumbled "What's wrong with you…" He spotted Edward  
"Nothing with me." I sighed as I carefully placed Edward on the bed next to him, then turned to alex "You feeling okay?"  
"Fine, I just have a huge lump on the back of my head." He sighed as Ms O'Gorman attended to Edward's wounds

"So what happened?" Alex asked "After I backed out."  
I looked at my hand, stared at the birthmark that was now on my hand. "Well, I found out that that thing that attacked us, he's looking for more like him. And that his name is En- something…um, c'mon! I know this! Envy! That's it."  
"You mean like the seven deadly sins?" Ms O'Gorman chimed in, "He attacked you?"  
"Yeah. Wait, how does that have any relation to the seven deadly sins?" I asked  
"Well, I am a Catholic after all." She smiled "You boys should know them!"  
"There's, Envy, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Gluttony and Greed." Alfie mumbled as he coughed slightly, the name Greed rang in my head for a few moments as I remembered that Envy called me greed at the end of the battle.  
"That's where it gets disturbing…" Alex sighed, he was now immersed into deep thought, "If there's envy, and you're implying that he's one of the seven deadly sins, taking into account that he's looking for others like him…"  
"There's more than one homunculus." Alfie coughed. I began to shake as I looked at my hand, I suddenly saw a flash of Envy's leg when he kicked me, he had a mark exactly the same as mine, but on his leg.  
"No… I can't be…"  
_Don't you wonder why no matter how badly you get hurt, that you heal instantly?  
_"I won't believe it!"  
_I'm looking forward to our next encounter… Greed.  
_My entire body was shaking immensely making me collapse to my knees. Greed, One of the seven deadly sins, If these are in anyway related then that means…  
"I'm a Homunculus!" I wailed as I slammed my hands onto the ground.  
"Charlie! What the hell are you saying?" Alex knelt down next to me, I shoved the hand with the mark in his face,  
"Here's your proof!" I was panicking and shouting as Ms O'Gorman and Alfie were staring at me, they were in shock. "Envy had one just like it!"  
"So?" Alex was not convinced. "That doesn't mean you're a monster like he is."  
"It's not just that…" I looked around for a way to prove what I thought was true. "Envy could heal instantly as soon as we hit him!" I grabbed a pair of scissors from the first aid toolkit,  
"Charlie, put it down…" Ms O'Gorman urged,  
"Charlie I get that you're upset you don't need to do this!" Alex said as he tried to take the scissors from me. But in doing so he accidentally pushed the blade into my neck, slicing it open.  
"OH GOD! I'M SORRY!" Alex Yelled  
"Get out of the way!" Ms O'Gorman said as she pushed past Alex to get a front row seat to what happened next. The flash of light zapped the wound shut and stopped the bleeding entirely.

"I told you!" I buried my head into my hands, "I can't die! I can't be hurt!"  
"This is amazing…" Alfie said as he climbed out of bed. "I remember being told old fairytales from my Dad about Homunculi and now there's actually one in front of me, and he's one of my best friends!"  
"YOU'RE NOT HELPING!" I screamed at him making him jump back a bit,  
"Well, if it's any consolation, you're not like any homunculus ever known, you're you. And I don't think anyone would have it any other way." Alfie smiled as his face turned green and he sprinted into the bathroom slamming the door behind him.  
"He's right. Homunculus or not, you're still you. Nothing could ever change that." Alex smiled as he held out his hand for a fist pound. I smiled and returned the gesture sighing and saying  
"Thanks man. All of you, but there's one more thing." Alfie opened the door and came back out all pale and sweaty.  
"Envy called me Greed. I think I'm the homunculus that is supposed to represent greed." I clenched my fist, "Which means he's not gonna give up on me. He's going to come back."  
"Well, we'll have to train you then!" Alex had a large grin on his face.  
"No thanks…" The idea of training with Alex was one that sent fear through my entire body, an image of burning fire and demons and violence and myself nearly dead splattered into my mind.  
"I'm fine!" I attempted to make a dash for it but he got me by the back of the shirt so I couldn't go anywhere.  
"Oh by the way, do you have any spare school shirts?" Alex asked which made me look at the state of my uniform. I had numerous chemical burns on my shirt, leaving holes with scorched edges, and lots of them, making it easy to see my Toned stomach and chest making me go quite pink from embarrassment. Alex's uniform had one tear and one side was covered in blood from the attempt of carrying Edward.  
"There. All his wounds are disinfected and bandaged, he just needs some rest." She looked at me "Shall I call his parents to come pick him up?"

"_His mother died when he and his brother were very little." Grandmother sighed with a sad smile  
"Then who makes him dinner? Gives him get well hugs?" I asked cutely "what about his dad?"  
"Well my boy," She looked out the window with deep blue eyes, "His father left them when he was even younger than you are. How old are you Charlie?" She asked with kind eyes. I looked at my small fingers, lifting one up for every birthday Mum told me I've had, "one, two, free, four, five… I'm five!" I beamed as I showed her my hand.  
"Well, he was about three." She looked at me and picked me up to put me on her knee. I began to play with her metal toys she had next to her, she always made this sort of stuff, constantly taking this apart and putting them back together.  
"How old are you granny?" I asked while playing with a little robotic horse  
"You know kiddo, you should never ask a lady her age, she might get offended."  
"but you don't look that old, it confuses me sometimes." I sighed as I gave her the horse  
"I'll be 85 next year. I've lived for a very long time, I still have a long way to go though."_

"He doesn't have any." I looked at him, and Ms O'Gorman looked like she was going to cry.  
_

**The new greed… **_**GASP!  
R&R pleeeaassee!**_


	4. 4 Waking up Ed

"He doesn't have any." I looked at him, and Ms O'Gorman looked like she was going to cry.  
"Well, I'll leave him to you then. Just let him rest, on second thoughts, you should all have a rest until the others get back from the excursion."  
"Could you please have a look for another pair of school shirts?" Alex asked as she walked through the door and shut it only to hear: "Yeah, sure!" from behind it. Alex and I flopped onto the two remaining beds, with a huge sigh Alex flinched and held his ribs.  
"Liar." I grinned as I sat up, "You did get hurt."  
"Yeah… I think I broke a few ribs from the collision." He smiled he didn't really seem to care. "Hey Al?"  
"Yeah?" He groaned from the bed next to me, he had his arms covering his face and was obviously incredibly sick.  
"How did you know about homunculi?" He asked sitting up very slowly causing a lot of pain for him.  
"Why?" He asked as he coughed  
"Well, just 'cause you mentioned that your dad used to tell you about them." He was now in 'mystery mode' trying to squeeze all the possible answers out of him.  
"Well, it's when I was little, my dad used to tell me all sorts of stories that his dad told him, Stories about homunculi and how the highest ranking military officers were corrupt," He stopped and coughed a bit, "But, you honestly can't believe that? I mean, it's just a story!" He sat up and began coughing violently, I rubbed his back, hoping that may make him feel slightly better.  
"Thanks, but I mean, if you're a homunculus, and there was another one before…" He looked at Alex, "I'm missing something here, like how did they get here, or, more importantly…" He looked at Edward next to him, "how did he get here?"

There was a pause, as everyone sat and tried to figure out any connections, I stood up abruptly out of my bed making a mess of the sheets.  
"I KNOW!" I pointed at Alex, "Ya know when I fainted right?"  
"yeah, what was that about?" he blinked  
"Well, I remember constantly seeing these black arms, and before that when we were on the bridge, it seemed like it was going to fade away, and then… I thought I saw an eye." I put my hand on my mouth in concentration  
"What? You mean like a floating eye or some shit like that?" Alex laughed as he was cut short by sharp pains in his ribs,  
"Exactly, except, it was huge, definitely bigger than your head. And it was purple." I laughed only to get two 'you're crazy' looks from Alex and Alfie.  
"Go on." Alex matched my pose and was immersed in deep thought, "Is there some link between the appearance of these people and this… eye?"  
"Hm…" There was a definite silence, for a considerable time until I remembered when I saw the eye again. "I remember, I saw a massive gate while I was out, and it opened to have that massive eye in the centre and those black arms coming out of it. Oh! That's where I saw him come out… and…"  
"What do you mean by and?" Alfie wheezed  
"There's more people?" Alex realised "All of which had come from the other side of this gate! That's where they came from."  
"You're right! I saw about 4 other normal people, and I'm just gonna guess 5 more homunculi, that was including envy." I was so impressed that Alex could figure all this out so quickly, but he does impress people that way.  
"Hm, What exactly did you see? Like, what did the other homunculi look like? Did you actually see them?" Alfie was really interested, he was still quite pale and seemed as if he was really dizzy, he would lean to one side then pick himself back up.  
"Hm... You're really asking me a lot here." I mumbled as I began to stretch out my sore muscles "Envy was there, There was older man maybe in his sixties..? Whatever he was dressed in army attire, I dunno what country he was from though, a much smaller boy, maybe 8 or 9, gosh… Oh! Yeah there were 2 other guys one who was a bit…" I made hand motions signalling that he was both vertically challenged and large widthways, "And another who was just plain huge!"  
"5 other sins, plus you… that's only six." Alfie said incredibly cutely, he was the kind of guy with a baby face, extremely wide light brown eyes, with dark copper coloured hair. There was a silence as we all suddenly realised  
"THERE'S STILL ONE MORE!"

We all talked for about another hour about who that we would know, might be the missing homunculus, we drew a blank and decided to have a snooze for the three hours until school ended.  
I couldn't get to sleep at all, Alfie was conked out entirely, probably exhausted from being so sick and Alex was sleeping sprawled out on the bed with one hand hanging off the bed and the other scratching his ribs, he was also drooling quite a bit which made me laugh slightly, which wasn't good considering my evil laugh would definitely wake them up. I looked around for something to do, but there was hardly anything, so I decided to practise using the armour. There was a large full-length mirror on the other side of our room, so I decided to use that to see if there was any change in my skin.

First, I examined the birthmark of the otoboros, I had no idea how I knew what it was called, I guess it was instinct or something. I tried to get really angry, but I just couldn't, all of my rage was taken out on envy. Hm, Since the carbon in my skin seemed to react when I needed it to, maybe something to do with my mind controls it… I visualised all of the carbon joining together and my skin strengthening on my hands, I closed my eyes and I felt an electric sensation in my hands making me jump a bit to see that they had been covered in the armour and the birthmark was now red and still visible,  
"Hm, how interesting, if I have this ability, then the other homunculi should have similar skills or something." I whispered to myself,  
"That's right." A voice groaned from behind me, making me jump and the armour receded. I looked behind me to see that it was Edward, he was awake and holding his hand to his head and moving around checking he had all his limbs, the rolling up one sleeve to see his metal arm looked like it was falling apart, a panicked expression swept across his face as he frantically ran in front of me for the mirror,  
"Craaaapp…" he groaned as I looked in the mirror from behind him to see that his arm was indeed practically falling apart, but he could still move it. "Winry's gonna kill me…"  
That name struck a chord in my mind, I think I've met someone called that… but I can't remember. Oh well. I looked at his face from where I was standing to see that he looked a great deal like me, we had the same hair colour, and identical eyes. I've never met anyone besides me with gold eyes.

"You were saying something about the other homunculi?" I asked quietly hoping not to wake the others up.  
He sighed and rubbed his head "Yeah. But I wouldn't get involved with them. They're more powerful than anyone could ever understand."  
"But I could really learn something from them." I wanted to know more, about how this happened, why I am a homunculus, ask all of my unanswered questions. A hard metal hand came in contact with my face, but the armour had shielded my jawbone from breaking. A look of panic slid onto his face,  
"What? Don't tell me you're… greed?" He had a lethal expression on his face now, as his hand clenched the remainder of my shirt, to pull me closer.  
"No. I'm Charlie…" I had a confused look on my face, "Why do people keep calling me that?"  
"Never mind, but for your own good, don't get involved with homunculi, you'll regret it." He sighed as he calmed down a bit.  
"Hm. Granny forgot to mention how short he is."  
Hatred swept across Edwards face,  
"SHIT I SAID THE QUIET PART OUT LOUD!"  
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A PIPSQUEAK MIDGET?" He threw punch after punch at me which just resulted in me flipping and jumping all over the room with him following in chaotic noise making Alex and Alfie wake up and fall off their beds. In a panic I burst out the sick bay door, giving Ms O'Gorman one hell of a fright, then ran straight outside to enhance my chances of loosing him in the crowd of younger years just chilling eating their lunch.

"Get back here Charlie!" Edward was sprinting so fast that he was catching up with ease when I overheard some year 11's conversation:  
"Hey, have you seen the bridge?" one said, "It's totally wrecked. Like a bomb hit it!"  
"Hah! No way! A bomb? Get real! I reckon it was someone's fight! Man I wish I was there to see it." Another guy said  
"I hope the people who were in the fight are alright. It looked pretty rough." The girl said  
"Rough! Hah! I wouldn't be surprised if one of them died!" the first guy laughed.  
I stopped dead in my tracks to have Edward tackle me knocking me over and him landing neatly on his feet after a handspring.  
"Never call me a Midget!" He screamed at me.

All of a sudden, Alex picked Edward up with ease, a fierce look on his face, an equally fierce look was on Edwards face as Alex glared  
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" He yelled "BOTH OF YOU!" He glared at me and then released Edward really quickly making him stumble a bit,  
"I SWEAR IF YOU WAKE ME UP AGAIN AND IT'S NOT 3:00 I WILL MURDER YOU!" He walked back to sick bay in a very agitated way and then stuck his head out and did the I'm Watching you sign. Everybody was looking at us and then went back to their own conversations, but I could overhear them saying that we were the ones who were in the fight. They were right of course, but how come it was so obvious? I looked to my left to see a large group of girls giggling as they looked at me, they saw that I was looking at them and then one shouted out  
"YOU HAVE HOT ABS!" At the top of her lungs.  
"what?" I looked down at my shirt to see I hadn't changed my shirt from the one covered in holes, it was painfully revealing… and of course being the insecure thing I am, I sprinted as fast as I could back to student office, grabbing Edward and dragging him back so fast I don't think that many people saw me.

"MS O'GORMAN!" I shouted "WHERE ARE THE CLEAN SHIRTS?"  
"On your beds dear. I put them there just after you ran out." She didn't even look at me as she was too engrossed in whatever it was she was doing on her computer.  
"Thanks!" I yelled as I sprinted into the sick bay room, leaving Edward in reception. I looked at my reflection to see that I really did have hardly any shirt left… HOW EMBARRASSING! I'm going to admit I guess I do have a set of impressive abs, but that doesn't mean I like to show them off! I scrambled to put my new shirt on, tearing the remains of my old shirt, but before I put the new one on, Ms O'Gorman began Talking to Edward.  
"What's your name dear?" I overheard her say  
"Edward Elric." He sighed "I've been wondering for a while now, but where am I exactly?"  
"You're at Southern Cross High school." She said in a curious way "Didn't you know that?"  
"Well, no. I've never heard of a place called Southern Cross high…" He looked at the computer that Ms O'Gorman was using "What's that?"  
"This? What? It's a computer dear… you're acting as if you've never seen one before…"  
"Well I haven't! They don't have them where I come from." He was intrigued for a moment, but he sounded less interested by this stage.  
"Where are you from then?" She asked  
"A country called Amestris." He sighed, "Wait, what country is this then?"  
"Oh poor thing, you must've hit your head really hard! I'll go and get you an icepack." Ms O'Gorman was officially worried about him,  
"No, I'm fine, just answer my question." He asked very sternly there was a pause,  
"This is Australia." She said and everything went silent.

***awkward silence***

**Meep.**


	5. 5 Tell me more

"No, I'm fine, just answer my question." He asked very sternly there was a pause,  
"This is Australia." She said and everything went silent.

"CHARLIE!" Leah's voice burst through the door of sick bay, "I WAS SO WORRIED!"  
"YOU AND ALEX OKAY?" Tahnee's voice followed, they both stopped and went pink.  
"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" I wailed and ran into the bathroom  
"No! Charlie! We… we were just happy you were okay!" Tahnee sounded concerned then sounded like she was lying. "If it helps, you don't look as if you were hurt at all."  
"Yeah… um about that…" I began  
"Charlie COME OUT!" Leah Screamed as she kicked the door down "Now come here."  
She took my hand and began prodding my abs, then arms and so on… It made me laugh nervously.  
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" I yelled and plastered myself to the wall  
"I was checking for any injuries you idiot!" She sighed, Tahnee was still quite pink and looking at the floor.  
"YEAH RIGHT! MORE LIKE RAPE!" I yelled which made her really pissed.  
"RAPE?" She screamed "YOU WANT TO SEE RAPE? I'LL SHOW YOU IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT!"  
"NO! I WAS KIDDING!" We began running around the room like lunatics, leaving Tahnee to wake up Alex and Alfie. They were already awake from all the racket, Alex's eyes were bloodshot and he was not happy, Alfie on the other hand, woke up and rubbed his eyes and as he outstretched his hands, he hit me in the head, and I was knocked to the ground.  
"Leah! God honestly you're gonna kill him one day!" I Tahnee said  
"Get real I would never do that. If I did, then who would provide me with my source of amusement?" She said innocently  
"You do really like to piss people off huh?" Edward said as he leaned against the door frame. He looked like he was pretty stressed.  
"I DO NOT!" I yelled, I had a huge lump on my head that swelled, then immediately receded  
"Oh so you are up." Alex smiled and stood up and held out his hand "I'm Alex."  
Edward shook his hand "I'm Edward. Thanks for helping me earlier."  
"I helped too!" I pleaded as Leah Elbowed me on the head "Hey! Why do you keep doing this?"  
"It's amusing." She smiled and poked her tongue out at me. Edward had a look of disbelief on his face,  
"What? You're not on their side?" He asked  
"What the hell?" I said "Why would I be on their side? They tried to kill me!"  
"Wait, what do you mean by 'they'?" Alfie asked  
"You don't mean the Homunculi do you?" Alex said as he pulled his hand away, and realised that Edward's hand was a fake.  
"Yeah. I do. How do you know about them?" He asked.

Tahnee and Leah were extremely confused, they were standing on either side of me, and I was sitting casually on the floor with no shirt on. I quickly buttoned up my shirt and sighed a sigh of relief. We spent the next half an hour explaining to Edward, Tahnee and Leah exactly what happened to us, I told my part and let Alex say something up to where he collapsed, when we had finished, Leah screamed out "COOL!" and Edward was deep in thought but Tahnee,  
"C'mon, Tahnee, don't cry! We're fine now." Alex said as he tried to make her happy, she pushed him on top of me,  
"Hey!" We said together  
She hiccupped as she began to cry even more, "Why?" She Hid her face in her hands, Edward knelt down to eye level, "It's all okay. They're fine… you don't need to worry anymore." He smiled. Tahnee looked away  
"Why do you always have to be so careless with your lives! You only have one!" Alfie took her tear-smothered hand  
"They well understand this, and you of all people should be there to make sure they don't waste their lives." He pulled her up and she attached herself to him and began to wail with misery,  
"Just…Promise me!" She wailed "Promise me, you won't die!"  
"We promise we won't die." Alex and I said "We give you our word." She smiled slightly and then seemed to be even more upset,  
"But in return," I began "You have to promise us this." She looked up and detached herself from Alfie  
"What?" She sniffed as she wiped her face slightly  
"That the next time you cry, it'll be with tears of joy!" I yelled as she ran and decided to attach herself to me instead. She burst out into tears and hiccupped "I will!" I put my arms around her, in hopes that she might calm down and when I looked at Edward he seemed fairly shocked, I wasn't sure why,  
"Aww what the hell." Alex said as he joined in the hug, forcing Leah to 'squee' and join in and Alfie came in as well which made Tahnee smile and calm down, as she still held on, but not as hard.

_DING DONG DING DONG DING DING DING_

The bell rang throughout the school, signalling the end of the day.  
"Well, I guess we'd better get going then." Alex sighed as he took his dirty shirt off and replaced it with a clean one wincing as he lifted his arm above his head.  
"You okay?" Tahnee asked  
"Yeah, Fine." He said straight away  
" 'kay then." She took her school bag and pulled Leah with her out the door "See you tomorrow then."  
"But it's Saturday." Alfie said looking confused  
"I'm having a party at my house tomorrow, bring your families and stuff 'cause… it's a surprise."  
Alex Edward and I all looked very puzzled as Tahnee walked away, only to reappear again briefly to say:  
"That includes you Edward! Bye guys!"  
"BYYYEEE!" Leah could be heard from outside the building  
Alfie was obviously feeling a bit better now, he wasn't running into the bathroom every 5 minutes, Alex kept moving his arms around in an attempt to rise over the pain and Edward, his face was hidden by his hair as he was looking at the floor, leading on the door frame.  
"Edward, what's up with you?" Alfie asked as he walked past him, He looked up, with a bit of a sd look on his face,  
"I… I don't know where my family is right now…" He sighed as he shoved his hands into his pockets.  
"Well, we'll help you look for them then." I smiled as I slung one arm over his shoulder, "But in the mean time, you should stay at my house!"  
"I'd much rather stay at a hotel or something." He frowned  
"aww, come one man! It's not like you have much money on you right now." I grinned evilly which made him search frantically for something and then he hung his head  
"Fine."  
"Okay then! Let's go!" I pushed him out the door "Bye guys! See you tomorrow I guess."

The walk to the bus stop was not a very talkative one, every time I asked him a question I only got a one word answer.  
"How old are you?"  
"15."  
"Okay… then, what do you like to eat?"  
"Anything."  
"Come on! Give me something else! Anything you don't like?"  
"Milk."  
" 'scuse me?"  
"I don't like milk."  
"Well that explains why you're so short." I blurted out by accident which made him twitch and then attack me in a furious barrage of punches  
"STRIKE TWO! CALL ME THAT AGAIN AND YOU DIE!"  
"Okay! Okay! Just calm down!" I laughed as he eventually calmed down as the bus swerved around the corner, the stopped to let everyone on.  
"Well this is new." Edward sighed as numerous people piled onto the bus, There were already heaps of people on it so Edward and I had to stand.  
"What's new?" I asked as I pulled out my Ipod.  
"Well, this bus thing, I've never been on one, I have been on a train though." He eyed my classic black ipod "So's that."  
"Really? What era are you from dude?" I laughed as I handed him one ear phone and indicated that he slots it into his ear  
"1918 or so."

I dropped my ipod onto the bus floor in surprise, tearing the earphones out of our ears in a very painful way.  
"Why? Isn't it 1918 in this place?"  
"Okay, first of all we're in australia." I sighed as I picked up my ipod, thank goodness it was okay, I would've died if it wasn't. "Second, it's 9th June. 2010."  
The look of surprise swept across edward's face, then it turned into a smile, "It's been worse," he laughed and then he looked quite sad,  
"You're worried about your brother aren't you?" I said and he looked at me, he's probably stressing quite a bit on the inside, he constantly keeps changing his expression, but at this very moment a look of disbelief brushed across his face.  
"How do you know about Alphonse?" He asked shakily  
"I know," I sighed as I wrapped my headphones around the ipod, since I knew I'd never get to listen to it now. "Because I grew up listening to my grandma telling me all sorts of stories about you and your brother."  
"My story?" He asked "My life?"  
"Your adventures with your brother," I sighed "Yeah. Everything."

**He's not a stalker at all….  
R&R!**


	6. 6 the stranger passed out in the street

"My story?" He asked "My life?"  
"Your adventures with your brother," I sighed "Yeah. Everything."  
He pressed the button on the side of the bar and briskly got off at the next stop. We were at the local shops, not too far away from my house.  
"Edward wait!" I shouted as I pushed past numerous people to get off at this stop, I literally fell off the bus, rolling onto the hard pavement hitting my head. "Thanks!" I shouted at the bus driver and he shrugged as I saw Edward beginning to fade into the masses of people bustling about their daily business. He wouldn't stop walking, it was as if he wanted to get rid of me. He wanted to walk away from all his problems, like what happened when he burnt down their house,

"_The two of them burnt down their house so they would keep moving forward." Grandma sighed as she sipped her cup of coffee  
"Oh mum, you're not telling that story to him again are you?" Mum said as she walked through the door  
"naaaww Mum!" I groaned "It was just getting to the good part!" I sighed.  
"Come on Charlie, It's your bedtime now." She winked as she took my hand and pulled me off the floor  
"It's 8:00! All my friends go to bed at 9!" I whined  
"Really Charlie, who then?" Mum asked sneakily "You have to be up early for your first day of year 3 tomorrow!"  
"…fine." I sighed which made grandma laugh heartily  
"You remind me so much of your grandfather! It's remarkable!"  
"I'm amazed he's even inherited his looks as well." Mum sighed, "I sure miss dad."  
A sad look swept across everybody's faces, but I smiled which made granny slightly happier,  
"Charlie promise me you'll never burn down our house." Grandma laughed  
"I promise! G'night Granny!"_

Back then, I honestly thought that is was merely because he wanted to move on to better things, I truly believe that's what he's intended, but there's something more, something eating at him and it's my guess that he left because he wanted to escape, burn all memories of his mother's death, everything involving his childhood, in hopes of growing up.

But, that isn't growing up. That's running away.

"Edward! Stop!" I yelled as he began to run, "HEY!"  
I began to chase after him, I began to lose track of him in amongst a crowd of people,  
"Edward! Hey-whoooaaa!' I collided violently with someone and knocked them to the ground,  
"Charlie! Watch where you're going!" He yelled at me  
"Edward?"  
"What?"  
"Why'd you stop?"  
He pointed behind him for me to see a boy about my age, with long black hair passed out on the ground. He looked familiar…  
"I saw him come through the gate!" I scrambled to my feet to see if I could help him out,  
"Don't bother, all he wants is food." Edward said as he stood up very reluctantly "Right ling?"  
"…Soooo huuungryyyy…" He moaned as his gaunt face looked at me, He sprang up and then pointed at me, then Edward and then sounded extremely stressed out.  
"What? Ed? There's two of you? Oh… Dude! You've gotten taller hey?" He smiled as he patted me on the head.  
"Um… That's ed." I sighed as Ling took his hand off my head and saw Edward was giving off an aura of pure hatred.  
"Oh hahah! Sorry! It's just you two look so alike." He smiled "Well, I'm ling what's your name?"  
"Charlie. Nice to meet you." I smiled as we shook hands  
"Same here-" _Gyuuuuuu_ His stomach growled as his face went gaunt yet again.  
"Hey, Ling," I sighed as I put my hands behind my head "I'll make you something when we get to my house. It's not far from here." He beamed as he picked himself up at the idea of food.  
"Let's go!" He laughed

"Talk about rebound…" I laughed nervously, this guy may end up eating the entire cupboard if I'm not careful. "Hey Edward, are you guys friends?"  
"OF COURSE WE ARE!" Ling laughed taking Edward's arm making Edward frown furiously and start attempting to shake him off,  
"No we're NOT! Let go!" He yelled as ling didn't let go no matter what. I began to laugh, they were both exactly like me and Leah. I just hope ling is nowhere near as cruel.  
The tree of us walked the 2km walk to my house and this scorcher of a day made everybody uncomfortable.  
"Why is it sooo hot?" Ed moaned "I'm gonna me killed by my own automail…"  
"Ahahaha!" Ling laughed "This is great weather isn't it!"  
"This Australia place is too damn hot for me!" Edward complained  
"Suck it up!" I said "If I can do it so can you!"  
Edward moaned and Ling laughed, Edward was wearing a few layers, a black cardigan, black skin tight pants and a blue-black singlet, which made me guess this Amestris place was cold, ling on the other hand, had Arabian sort of harem pants, with a yellow jacket and no shirt, no wonder he wasn't complaining.

"Chill dude, we're here." We stopped in front of my home, as I opened the gate, Ling happily ran through and Edward was shocked at the size of my house.  
"It's huge…" He gaped,  
"I've seen bigger." ling sighed. "But this isn't half bad."  
"Hm… I've never considered my house to be big, oh well, I guess having a Mum who's one of the big dogs for a bank and a dad who's a head chef at a 4-star restaurant helps." I slid the key into the lock and twisted it the wrong way before getting it to open, I flung open the door and entered in the security deactivation code before chucking my bags into my room. Ling came inside and inhaled the cold air,  
"Phew, it's definitely much cooler in here."  
Edward sprinted indoors and flopped on the nearest bed, which just so happened to be mine.  
"Okay, make yourselves at home I guess. Oh and There's a bathroom through that door if you want to freshen up."  
"Thanks." Edward sighed as he stood up to go inside to check it out. "WHOA!"  
"What!" I ran in hoping he hadn't slipped on the floor.  
"You're bathroom is huge!"  
It's true, my bathroom has a shower, bathtub with jets and 2 sinks with a linen closet and numerous pink candles mum laid out to say 'she was here' sort of thing.  
"Yeah." I laughed "If you're gonna freak out at everything, tell me so I don't assume you've killed yourself by accident."  
"Yo! Charlie!" Ling yelled from the kitchen area, "What's Vegemite?"  
I sprinted into the Kitchen hoping that he hadn't eaten everything before I made something for him. When I got there he had done little damage to my dad's kitchen, Only rummaging through the pantry to get any kind of snacks. He'd gotten a spoon out of the drawer and shovelled a huge mouthful of the brown vegemite into his mouth and a sickly expression swept across his face.  
"I'll take it you don't like that." I laughed as I took the jar from him and he took the clean spoon out of his mouth, and he slowly shook his head which made me laugh even harder "don't worry if you don't, I'll just get you something else." As I put the tub back into the pantry I saw a message from dad was stuck on the lid:

_Have gone out sailing, could you please start the roast by yourself? Call if you need any help,_

_ From Dad_

I sighed. It'll take a good 4 hours to make the slow roast lamb he planned to make. Oh well, I guess I'll have to do it anyway and get them something else in the meantime.  
"What's that?" Ling asked from only one inch behind me, he was reading it over my shoulder, it made me jump, I wasn't expecting that.  
"I have to start making dinner now,"  
"Great! When will it be ready?" He grinned  
"4 hours…" I smiled  
"AHAHHAHHAHA!" He laughed as he slapped the table numerous times "That's a joke right?"  
"No."  
He went white in the face and slipped off the chair onto the floor.  
"It's okay!" I panicked, this guy was obviously on the verge of dying. "I can make you something real quick! Just hang on!"  
I scrambled into the Fridge and pulled out some tuna, Mashed potato and a carton of milk, I scrambled to take some crackers out for Ling to eat while he waited and I got the flour.  
"It'll be about 10 or so minutes to cook, hope you like fishcake!" I smiled as I turned on the stove and poured some oil into the pan, I'm guessing an image of an entire fish in a chocolate cake came to lings mind as he didn't look very impressed.  
"Don't worry you'll like it a lot. It's just like a big Chip, only it's made of fish and potato."  
"What's a chip?" He asked as he slammed the empty packet of crackers onto the table  
I dropped the flour smothered patty onto the pan and it made a brilliant hissing noise. "It's a potato that's been cooked in boiling oil."  
"Hmmm." He sighed as he crossed his arms. "Well, whatever you're cooking smells good at least."  
"Thanks!" while it was frying, I cleaned my hands and got the lamb out of the fridge and began to pour the mango chutney and meat sauce over the top, I've seen dad scramble over many dishes at a time at work and he manages to do it so why can't I? I scrambled to cut up the vegetables and place them on the foil to be smothered in olive oil.  
"Okay then, let's get your lunch and-" A large splash of boiling oil got me in the face as I flipped the fish cake "ARRRGG!"  
"You okay man?" Ling asked as he rushed over to see if I was okay, My skin had gone all scabby and gross and my eye was burning. Then the electric sensation rushed over my wounds and the pain disappeared, leaving ling in shock.  
"Oh, that's right, I forgot about that." I got back to cooking.  
"What just happened?" Ling asked, "that would've blinded someone easily, but you're okay."  
"Oh, it's nothing don't worry about that. I flipped the crisp fishcake onto a paper towel and drained the excess oil into the oil jar,  
"there." I wiped my hands "You're lunch is done!" I put it onto a plat and squirted some Ketchup onto the side of the plate, he was still standing next to me with a very serious look on his face all of a sudden.

"Could you get a knife and fork please?" I asked as he suddenly held his sword to my face.  
"Tell me what happened." He said in a very serious tone, as Edward walked out with a towel around his neck and wearing one of my shirts, white singlet and skinny jeans.  
"What's going on?" He asked as he stopped rubbing his head with the towel  
"I think he's a homunculus." Ling said as he glared at me  
"What are you so pissed?" I said  
"Ling calm down." Edward said "He doesn't know anything about immortality."  
Ling lowered his sword, and sighed "Sorry, I didn't think you were a homunculus at first, you didn't give off a foul aura or 'ki' as I call it, but when I saw that you healed instantly, and that tattoo on your hand…"  
"Birthmark." I corrected him  
"Well, I'm sorry." He sighed as I got out a knife and fork  
"I forgive you. Now shut up and eat." I passed him the crisp fishcake and he sat down at the table and ate it.  
"This is actually pretty good." He mumbled with a full mouth  
"Thanks dude. Oh Ed, did you want anything?" I asked as I continued to put things in the oven  
"Hm, do you have any…apple pie?" He asked reluctantly  
"Hm…" I rummaged around in the large fridge, "Yep. We had it for dessert last night. Quite the coincidence, huh." I unwrapped the pie and put it onto a plate with a knife and fork and ed took it then went and sat down onto the table.

He seemed to stop eating it all of a sudden  
"Don't you like it?" Ling asked as he leaned back on his chair with a clean plate lying in front of him.  
"No, it's exactly the same as something a friend made for me." He turned to me, "It's really good."  
"Well, My Granny taught my mum how to make it and my dad naturally picked it up since mum couldn't do it." I laughed "Come to think of it, I can't make it either."  
Ed laughed, then continued eating it. Ling flopped slightly in his chair and stretched out his arms, when he flipped his head to the side, he saw our view of the headlands, great towering cliffs over an unforgiving yet Beautiful ocean.


	7. 7 Phone Call

"Whoa! It's the ocean!" He said as he ran to open the door to the Backyard. He ran to the railing And admired our bountiful view of blue bays and sandy beaches. "It's so big!"  
"Haven't you ever seen the ocean before?" I said as Edward ran out as well,  
"You're right it is huge!" Edward said as he jumped up onto the railing, holding on with two hands and leaning over the edge. When they looked down, they saw our pool, it was apparently quite interesting.  
"Let's go for a swim!" Ling shouted as he got up onto the balcony and tore his jacket and sword off to do numerous flips and cannonball into the pool with a colossal splash that got ed and I wet from 3 or so metres above. "The water's great!" Ling shouted as he floated on his back with ease.

I sighed, I really hope that these two –especially ling- don't completely wreck my house.  
"Hey ed." I turned to my right to see he was already down at the pool, I guess while they were chilling in the pool, I'll go and do my… chores… I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M ACTUALLY GONNA DO THEM! I messed up my hair in disbelief, this whole homunculus thing was obviously messing with my head. I went back inside and made my way to our 2 guest bedrooms, One had a double bed with an ensuite bathroom and the other had 2 king sized singles with a smaller bathroom across the hall with a large wardrobe full of old clothes From Grandma and grandpa. I figured they could choose whichever one they wanted, but whatever, I just wish we had a maid or something because my parents always make me do all the dirty work!

I opened up the cupboard only to have mountains of old clothes fall on top of me, nearly suffocating me. I rummaged through the never ending mess, as I pushed my head through to fresh air, my head was caught in some kind of helmet.  
"Ack! It's not coming off!" I pulled as hard as I could, jammed my head in the door and tried to pull my head out that way, that didn't work. I tried to pull it by the long white strands of hair that came off the top, then decided I shouldn't because it would tear if I did, I remember that it had already been repaired once, so I decided; better not risk it. I tried to put butter under the rim and slide it off, but that just made my face all greasy. I gave up and ran out to Edward and Ling in hopes that they would get it off for me.  
"HEY! Could you guys help me get this thing off?" I yelled at the two of them who were just lounging at the side of the pool. They looked up and got a scare to see an armour head glaring down at them. Edward sprinted up towards me as fast as he could and ling jumped nimbly from various surfaced until he got to the balcony.  
"What the hell? How'd you do that?" Ling began to laugh  
"Shuddup and help me!" Two hands twisted the helmet slightly and pulled it off with ease,  
"Thanks! I can breathe again!"  
"Where'd you get this?" Edward asked as he looked at the helmet, tilting it from side to side examining it and tapping it in various places.  
"Um, it was in the closet." I said very plainly  
"Show me!" He yelled as a furious frown fell upon his brow.  
"Uh, okay then." I gulped as we all went to see the messy guest room with mountains of stuff on the floor. Ed rushed to the pile and rummaged through it, furiously throwing anything that wasn't related to the helmet directly at me, he couldn't find what he was looking for, but what ever he chucked out of the way, I managed to catch and fold up.  
"Do have a suit of armour anywhere in this house?" He yelled at me, as he tossed a red coat at me.  
"Hey, whoa, hold up if you're gonna make a bigger mess, do it somewhere else!" I shouted at him which only resulted in him shouting back.  
"DO YOU OR NOT?"

"_Hey Mum?" My mum shouted as a large suit of armour fell off its stand making rather large crashing noises as it fell.  
"Yes Trisha?" Grandma shouted from the living room,  
"Mum, what are we going to do with this suit of armour?" She sounded quite unhappy.  
Grandma walked into the room to see the armour on the floor.  
"Oh dear." She said, only to be interrupted by a frustrated mum.  
"Mum, We can't have such a large dangerous object around when we're raising a child. Look at poor Charlie! He's crying his eyes out!" Mum said as she rocked my tiny self in her arms, I was crying the loud noise had frightened me incredibly badly, as any loud noise would do for someone so young.  
"Dear?" Grandma shouted from the room, "What shall we do with the armour?"  
"What?" Grandpa's voice echoed through the hall as he walked into the room,  
"Oh is Charlie alright trisha?" He said as he took me from mum's arms, and I immediately calmed down.  
"No he's not dad. Your armour nearly fell on top of him!" her voice was all raspy and stressed, as tears streamed down her eyes.  
"Oh no, Trish it's alright, he's fine." Grandma reassured her, then turned to glare at grandpa.  
"Uhh…" He looked around nervously, "I guess we'll just have to send it back to your uncle in England." He sighed as he talked to my mum, I began to get really sleepy and pulled granddad's long hair, then giggled before I went to sleep._

"The suit of armour… I remember, that my grandpa sent it back to his brother in England." I tilted my head to the side, "I guess he only sent the body back, Hah, typical of him to keep the head." I laughed as I tried to take the helmet from Edward.  
"Oh. I see," Ed sighed, "I just thought that for a moment… oh never mind." He passed the helmet back to me.  
"What?" I asked as ling actually began to put stuff away.  
"I just thought it might help me find alphonse." He sighed with teary eyes.  
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him in a while either." Ling sighed as he flopped on the bed.  
"I know, I'll just call my great uncle and let you talk to him." I smiled as I grabbed the phone from the hallway, "If it helps you find alphonse, then I'm sure he'd be glad to help."  
A look of disbelief melted onto ed's face, he seemed to be slightly surprised about how a homunculus is being so uncharacteristically kind.  
"Um, thanks…"

"Hello?" An old voice asked  
"Hello! Uncle! It's Charlie."  
"Oh hello my boy how have you been?" He laughed  
"I'm good, I have some friends over, and one would like to talk to you about that suit of armour grandpa sent you." I said very happily  
"Of course, I'd be happy to talk to him." He sounded as if it was a good thing that people were beginning to take an interest in antiques and stuff.  
"Just wait a sec, I'll put you on speaker… here, ed."  
"Um, hello, my name is Edward."  
"Edward? Hm… haven't heard that name in a long time." Uncle sighed  
"I beg your pardon?" Edward asked as I laid the phone on the bed so that I could sit down.  
"Oh, nothing. Nice to meet you."  
"Okay, I was just wondering if you could check something in the armour for me." Edward asked with determination present in his voice.  
"What did you want me to check?" Uncle asked  
"Could you tell me, if there's a blood rune on the inside of the suit?"  
There was a long pause, and when uncle spoke again there was an unusual tone in his voice.  
"How do you know about that?"  
Edward's face lit up with excitement  
"Alphonse! I'm coming for you!" He shouted as he ran out of the room,  
"WAIT!" Uncle's voice could be heard over edward's loud footsteps, "Charlie! Ensure that Edward doesn't do anything rash!"  
"Why is that?" I asked as I picked up the phone to make sure ed didn't run away,  
"Because the blood rune he's talking about is no longer in use!"  
Edward stopped running, he turned around, with a panicked expression "What do you mean, 'no longer in use'?"  
"Because it's my blood rune." Uncle sighed "I'm sorry, but the alphonse you're looking for isn't here."  
"What?" Edward said as he took the phone, "Alphonse?" tears began to spill from his wide, kind eyes, "You're back… in your own body?"  
"That doesn't matter Edward, what you have to do now is find alphonse, make sure that nothing has happened to him, also, make sure you keep Charlie safe."  
"What? Why keep this midget safe?"  
"WHAT? I'M WAY TALLER THAN YOU ARE!"  
"Ahahaha! Same old ed… You haven't changed at all."  
"Um," Ling began "Just while we're at it, have you seen Ran Fan or Fuu?"  
"Tin Can and who?" I asked, not quite understanding what he said,  
"Ling? Is that you?" Uncle asked as he recognised the voice, "I haven't seen you since you went back to Xing."  
"Okay whoa," This was all too much for me in just 5 minutes. I couldn't quite understand what was going on. I was still holding the helmet and I tried to picture my uncle inside it but it just made me laugh, "Okay, Uncle you still there?" I asked,

"Yes Charlie?" he answered as I took the phone off of Edward,  
" Well, two things, first, you and Edward are brothers, right?"  
"Yes."  
"Well, then if you're my grandfather's brother…" I turned to Edward and enraged emotions filled me up and I'm guessing the same went for Edward.  
"YOU'RE MY GRANDAD?" I yelled as I pointed my finger at him,  
"YOU'RE MY GRANDSON?" Ed yelled as I began to laugh maniacally, he was just in a state of pure shock.  
"Alphonse…" He said shakily as I kept on laughing in the background with ling just sitting calmly, cross legged on the bed. "Who do… who did I marry?" He had a very panicked expression on his face in anticipation of who it might possibly be.  
"Winry of course. You've always fancied her."  
Edward's face went bright red and he began to run around the room in a panic which just made me laugh even louder and harder than before.  
"THERE'S NO WAY THAT WINRY WOULD EVER MARRY ME! THERE'S NO WAY I WOULD EVER MARRY HER! I… I… CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!"  
"AHAHAAAHAHAAAA!" I Laugh/yelled  
He was running around rolling on the floor, jumping on the bed, trying to find some sort of distraction, he eventually just began running around reciting the periodic table.  
"HYDROGEN HELIUM LITHIUM BERYLIUM BORON CARBON NITROGEN OXYEN FLUORINE NEON SODIUM MAGNESIUM ALUMINIUM SILICON CLORINE PHOSPHORUS!"

It was this that actually make Ling laugh.  
"So Alphonse," Ling began "where do you think we will manage to find everyone?"  
"Hm, I'm not sure, but I'm sure that you'll find them all, everything will work itself out. Just tell me really quickly, what exactly happened, why are all of you here?"  
there was an immediate silence, which resulted in me breaking it by saying  
"aaawwwwkwwwaaaarrrd…"  
"Well," Ling sighed as he pushed his arms onto his knees in thought, "I don't really remember much, just that Edward, you tried to transmute everyone out of something, but we came out in the wrong place."  
"Oh, I see. Well sound to me like you have to find everyone again so that you can transmute yourselves back to amestris." Uncle sighed  
"How are we going to do that?" Ling asked as he turned to Edward who had calmed down and was now considering the possibilities.  
"I guess we'd have to use a philosopher's stone to transmute that many people…" He sat on the floor and moulded his silvery-blue automail arm to the side of his face in thought.  
"To do that we'd need a homunculus." He looked at me  
"Oh right that's me." I laughed  
"Charlie? You're a homunculus?" Uncle yelled over the phone "When did this happen?"  
"Well, I dunno when exactly, but I found out this morning." I laughed as I looked at my hand. "Hey uncle, do you know about this?"  
"No. This is the first I've heard of this. Maybe ask your parents when they get home."  
_Click! _  
"Okay…" I sat on the floor and chucked the phone next to the closet.

"There are other homunculi." Ling said "They came out of the gate…" He looked at me "That's where I'd seen you before! You were the one who helped to shut the gate."  
"You were there?" Edward asked an unreadable expression on his face, which then slid back into a sliver hand  
"Well, yeah. I remember I passed out and woke up in front of some gate. Well, that freaked me out so I bolted, but then you, ed, I saw you come out, and…"  
"Who came out next?" a serious tone made itself known in ling's voice.  
"A boy who looked a lot like ed."  
"Alphonse?" Edward stood up abruptly which made me fall back slightly  
"I guess so."  
"So he is here." Edward fell back onto the bed and rested his left arm on the bridge of his nose, hiding his eyes behind it. "I'm so relieved." Tears began to stream down the sides of his face. 


	8. 8 Confession!

"So he is here." Edward fell back onto the bed and rested his left arm on the bridge of his nose, hiding his eyes behind it. "I'm so relieved." Tears began to stream down the sides of his face.  
"So you must have seen me next, because I was following Alphonse. No wonder I sensed something, it was you." Ling said as he folded his arms into the arms of his jacket and his raven eyes shifted in my direction.  
"But we saw more homunculi didn't we?" I asked. 

_DING DONG!  
_The front doorbell went off causing the three of us to snap back to the real world. I stood up and strolled to the door where two silhouettes were visible, as I reached for the door knob, a cold automail hand pulled me back so he could whisper:  
"Just wait a sec, what if one of them's envy in disguise?"  
"Whaddya mean? How do you know that he'd be so bold as to take on a homunculus, an alchemist and… well, ling." I whispered back  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ling asked as he suddenly popped up behind me sending chills up my spine  
"Nothing!" I squeaked  
"okay" ling paused with eyes fixated on the door in a very serious manner, then he turned his head back to us. "Envy's not here, it's just two humans."  
"Oh okay cool good to know. Can I open the door now?" I asked as a voice could be heard from outside  
"HEY! Charlie it's us! Alex and Al can you open the door?" Al's uncharacteristically loud voice rang through the house. I threw the door open and saw it was indeed Al and Alex, Alex seemed fairly unscathed, he'd got a few band aids here and there, and it looked like his ribs were bandaged up, Alfie had a huge bag of soft drinks and chips, he looked like he was struggling, which was bizarre, he looked like he'd be strong, but I guess not.  
"Finally! You had me standing there for ages with this heavy bag!" He shoved the bags to me, they were pretty heavy, seeing as there were 4 big bottles of soda, but I got them to the kitchen okay.

Alex and Alfie immediately settled into the theatre/tv room on our big module sofa. Alex winced as he slowly lowered himself down and rested his head on the back of the sofa and let out a big sigh. Alfie had jumped straight onto the couch as well, shuffling about and re-arranging surrounding pillows to find the most comfortable position when he noticed the new edition; Ling.  
"Oh hey! You guys made a friend!" he said as he settled down, crossed legged in a nest of pillows.  
"Who, ling?" Ed asked "He's a…" he looked at ling and had a sudden change of heart. "An acquaintance."  
Immediately, ling went white with shock and went into the corner to grow what appeared to be mushrooms.  
"I thought we were friends…" ling mumbled as he poked a large mushroom.  
"ahaha! Really? Then why is he staying with you then?" Alex asked, staring at the ceiling, admiring the lights and speakers  
"He'd starve if we didn't run into him on the way here." Ed laughed.  
"plus I like it here! Charlie can make a good fishcake!" Ling sprung out of his corner with a big thumbs up.  
"okay, I have some lemonade here," I set a ridiculous amount of cups on the table, "so help yourselves I guess." My back became sore so I had to sit down next to alex and ed and ling then followed to sit down.  
"SO!" I yelled as I flung myself forwars to sit my arms on my legs, "what brings you to my house?"  
"We decided we'd crash here for a bit so you don't get into trouble again!" ALfie grinned slyly  
"Well, actually, I was worried that our families would be in danger after that encounter with that envy character." Alex said  
"Oh, so you endanger mine instead?" I joked  
"No, it's just…" He winced as he moved slightly "uhh, if it does happen, my family getting attacked, I won't be able, ah, to do anything." He clutched his ribs and hunched over as if he were in a lot of pain and started to cough violently, gasping for air.  
"Oh hey man do you want a cough lolly or a pain killer?" I asked and he sat up and wiped some blood off his mouth.  
"No. I'm fine now."  
" I can see what you mean." Ling said while sitting cross legged and setting down an empty cup, "To ensure the survival of both yourself and your family you come here to recover. Very clever."  
"Excuse me, I didn't quite get your names." Edward interrupted  
"Oh sorry, I'm Alfie." He smiled "I'm really here 'cause I wanted to be and also because I wanted to know more about what is going on."  
Edward looked closely at alfie, examining his dark brown, short, straight spiky hair that reminded him of someone who he couldn't quite make out, with big brown eyes that looked very hawk like, as if they could see everything and straight through someone.  
"I'm Alex." Alex said as he lifted one hand to wave, but it didn't quite work. "Nice to meet you guys."  
Alex did have clear blue eyes, which stood out more due to a slightly pale complexion and a full head of messy red hair with a prominent cowlick much like Edward's.

After the introductions, the five of us broke out into mindless chatter which lasted for quite a while.  
"So Alfie!" I put my arm around his shoulder. "When are you going to ask Tahnee out?"  
His face went bright red, I had to tighten my grip to make sure he didn't run away.  
"Wha-what are you talking about? I don't like Tahnee!" He was in denial as he didn't really recognise his own feelings towards her.  
"you know what I mean!" I grinned, "I mean: 'you of all people should be there to make sure they don't waste their lives' way to be subtle, the way you held her in your arms." I said very dramatically doing an impression along the way  
"I can't ask her out!" Alfie said as he looked at the ground in disappointment  
"Why not!" Alex yelled "You should ask her because if you don't someone else probably will. I mean she is a nice person."  
"I can't ask her because she likes someone else." Alfie glared furiously at Alex  
"Sorry." Alex and I said at the same time  
"it's okay." Alfie sighed "At least the guy she likes isn't some complete douche bag."  
"Haha." I laughed which made him smile  
"How about you guys?" Alex turned to Ed and ling "You guys like anyone?"  
Ling laughed while Ed went bright red in the face, remembering what older Alphonse had just told him. I grinned furiously at Ed and slammed a hand on his shoulder  
"You don't have to worry about it Ed. But you'd better ask her out at some point in your life for my sake!"  
"WHY WOULD I DO THAT?" he yelled still red in the face,  
"Because we're blood, because your future and my existence depends on it." I glared at him with a shark like grin  
"Wait, what do you mean by we're blood?" Alfie asked  
"Yeah, and as if your future depends on Ed getting together with some girl." Alex laughed  
"Winry is not just some girl!" Ed shouted then clamped a hand over his mouth  
"oh so you do like her!" Ling leered  
There was a long pause as all four of waited as to what he was going to say.  
"I" He stammered "I like Winry."  
"YEAAHH!" I yelled "Sweet! So I'm not gonna disappear into thin air! What a relief."  
"what so your future does depend on Ed getting together with Winry?" Alex asked looking very surprised  
"Yes it does." I said very plainly, seeing as Edward was so dumbfounded he couldn't form a sentence  
"so is he like your dad or something?" Alfie asked, he was really interested in this whole thing as well.  
"Grandfather." Edward said clearing his throat and calming down "I'm his grandfather." 


	9. 9 the boy that overcame greed

"Grandfather." Edward said clearing his throat and calming down "I'm his grandfather."  
Alfie and Alex had been stunned, Alex finally snapped out of it after a long silence,  
"so, this place that you're from, it's another time period?" his eyes wide with anticipation.  
"Yeah, it's around 1918 in your country right Edward?" Ling asked  
"Yeah, exactly 1918." Ed still seemed as if he were in a big state of shock, when I thought maybe he wanted to go outside for a bit of air, I didn't think admitting that he liked Winry would be that hard.  
"WHOA! Hey! If you're from 1918, would you know my great grandpa?" Alfie asked enthusiastically  
"well there are a lot of people in Amestris," Edward laughed  
"Well, you were in the military right?" Alfie asked "so was my gramps."  
"oh really? What position?" Edward sounded enthusiastic to see who Alfie is related to.  
"Colonel I think."  
Edward's smile disappeared and he ran up to Alfie and held his face with his left hand tilting it side to side. It was beginning to click in his mind, the nearly black short spiky hair, the big hawk-like eyes, he looked like a very young  
"Mustang." He mumbled with a look of hatred on his face,  
"wow! You do know him! then I'm guessing you know who my great gran is too?" Alfie asked as Edward let go of his face, leaving a great red mark along his jaw.  
"That's easy, Hawkeye. Judging by your eyes." Edward stopped and hid is ridiculous smile behind an automail hand, and muffled laughter escaped from his mouth and it was incredibly loud and eventually resulted in my laughing hearing someone who had a laugh nearly as bad as mine.

It was here, that I could actually begin to see a few similarities between myself and Edward. Firstly, our laughs, the sound of which can make even the most serious person laugh at the pure ridiculous noise, second, our eyes are both a bold gold colour that are full of kindness and intelligence finally our hair was also the same colour, but his was considerably longer than mine, pulled back in a neat ponytail. He seemed like a decent person, one with good morals and values, but he was definitely scared, no matter how hard he tried to hide it, it was obvious in his eyes.

"CHARLIIEE!" Mum's voice sang throughout the house, "I'm home dear," She stopped as she walked past the theatre room, the sheer amount of people that were scattered on the couch.  
"I didn't know you were entertaining. Hello Alfie, Alex…" She turned to Edward and ling and immediately dropped her bags of groceries and work folders. Edward glanced towards me and I nodded, he was shocked, yet again and stood up,  
"Dad?" She asked "Is that really you?" She ran up to Edward and pulled him into a meaningful hug as tears streamed down her face.  
"I've missed you so much."  
From Edward's point of view, my mum looked a lot like his, she had her eyes and face, she even sounded the same.  
"I'm sorry," Edward pushed away, "This is all so surreal to me," He began, "Not once, has the idea of a family crossed my mind, and yet, you're all here, I have a daughter, and a grandson…" He looked into his hands,  
"I never would've guessed." Ling sighed as he swivelled to look at mum, "So you are..?"  
"My name's Trisha." Mum said, as she smiled "and I haven't seen you in a ridiculously long time Ling."  
"oh this is interesting you know me as well." He laughed "I wonder, would you know of our futures?"  
"No." Edward interrupted, "Don't answer that. It'll be best if we don't know."  
Mum was so incredibly happy to see her dad after such a long time, but what confused her was why he was a teenager, why he was here. So naturally, she assumed it was my fault.  
"Charlie…"  
"Hm?" I looked up  
A large briefcase collided violently into my face numerous times until I became a bloody pulp on the floor  
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Mum shouted as Alfie pulled my departing soul back into my body  
Edward was shocked, but to him this confirmed Trisha was both his and winry's daughter, just thinking about it made him go red. As the wounds quickly regenerated, mum's face became panicked.  
"I didn't do anything mum." There was just one question on my mind at this point, "What did you do to me to make me a homunculus?"

She collapsed onto a nearby space of couch with her hands in her hair, she couldn't believe this was happening,  
"Well?"  
"You have to understand, we had to do this to you." She wiped away tears from her eyes. "When you were born, you had an irreversible disease, the doctor said you were going to die within 24 hours."

"_I don't want to lose him!" Trisha yelled huddling the sickly newborn in her arms,  
"Trisha, honey I know it's hard, there's nothing we can do." Richard said as he took his son from his wife's arms, "I'm going to miss him so much…" tears began to stream down the couple's faces  
"We can do something!" Edward said as he took the child from Richard and laid him on a soft towel, he then drew a large circle full of complex alchemical equations.  
"Edward, this isn't going to work!" Winry shouted "This is inhumane! Stop!"  
"No! Mum, let him do it…" Trisha wailed "it's our last hope. Please, Dad, do what you have to do to save him!"  
"Right." Edward nodded as he pulled out a crimson pebble from a vial he pulled from his pocket, he placed it over the barely breathing baby, he inhaled a long silent breath and the circle began to glow, the warm blue encased the red stone and pulled it into the baby, Suddenly a violent reaction triggered deep within the baby, squirming and writhing in pain,  
"Stop it!" Winry yelled, "It's going to kill him please!"  
"No. It's not." Edward said as he concentrated on the baby, "He will live!"  
The blue light became a deep red and the baby stopped wriggling, he stopped moving entirely.  
"no… no!" Trisha yelled as she huddled the infant in her arms."Please don't leave me… please!"  
a flash of golden light sparked on the child's hand, and an otouboros tattoo lighting red, then fading away in the glow.  
"waaa…WAAAAAHHH!" The baby began to cry for his mother.  
"He's okay!" Trisha and Richard wrapped around the baby together,  
"Thankyou so much Edward." Richard thanked his father-in-law.  
"My pleasure…" _

"What?" I was dumbfounded, I had no idea I owed my life to my grandfather… "Thank you…"  
"It's…" He paused, and smiled, "My pleasure." the words echoed in my head, almost as if I had heard them before. Edward then stood up and rubbed his aching muscles, and looked outside, the pink sunset had painted itself across the never ending sky, painting clouds warm oranges and pinks as it sank into the clear blue ocean.  
"I think I'm going to have to get some sleep now… If you wouldn't mind." He sighed as he made his way into the guest room.  
"Of course it's alright, do you want me to fix up the beds or anything?" Mum asked kindly as she got up off of the sofa,  
"No need mum, I already made them." I grinned enthusiastically  
"Well done my son!" she grinned back and sighed "Well, have a good night's rest Da- Edward, you've had a long and a rather, overwhelming day."  
"Thank you." He sighed, as he slipped into the other room with virtually no noise what so ever.  
"Now then," Ling clapped his hands together, "When do we eat?" Everybody began to ease up and become much more comfortable with their situation, especially ling, I thought that he didn't really care where he was, just so long as he had something to eat. All four of us were laughing and enjoying ourselves, gradually eating our weight in chips and junk food, (which is incredibly unhealthy… nahhhh I'll just eat it anyways.) laughing and telling jokes, we even had a discussion about stupid pick up lines. The sun began to slide into the ocean, gradually getting darker and darker until all four of us fell asleep before dinner, after all, we all had a long day.


	10. 10 Collection and Crash

Five figures towered over my head, only barely visible in the dim light, all of which had shark-like grins and evil eyes providing the only available light.  
"I look forward to our next encounter greed."  
I sat up abruptly, there was no one in the darkness, chilling laughter and screams could be heard from all around me, a strange presence filled the area and made me nervous, I had to constantly check that there was nobody behind me, I could feel a slight tugging on the back of my shirt, I turned around to see the little arms growing larger in numbers and pulling me to the ground, pinning me there.  
"AHAHAHAHA!" a loud deep voice bellowed through the darkness, "We meet at last!"  
"Who's there?" I shouted out in panic as the screaming grew louder and louder. A red light could be seen in the distance, I struggled to pull my head over my chest to get a better look of what it was, there wasn't anything there, the hands pulled my head back sharply causing my neck to crack, and above me I saw a man with short dark hair and greedy pink-purple eyes.  
"Who are you?" I yelled as he took my face and examined either side, then laughed  
"My how you've grown." He smiled with a large array of pointy teeth,  
"WHO ARE YOU?" I screamed as he laughed even harder, he stared evilly into my golden eyes,  
"Me? I'm you. I' the original greed." He sighed "I'm so offended that you'd forget the one who saved your punk ass."  
"what?"  
"Ha! To think a little brat like you beat me when you were a mere baby…" he sighed as he stood up to shove his hands into his pockets. "It's like I've landed in a Harry Potter book or something." He rubbed the back of your neck, then turned back to face me.  
"What do you want?" I asked as the hands began to wrap around my wrists and ankles even tighter.  
"Hm? Oh you're such a cold boy. I just came to help out my current host is all." He sighed "But if you don't want nor need my help then…"  
"Wait. Fine, I'll listen." I said stubbornly whilst pouting slightly  
"That's more like it. Since you beat me fair and square, I can at least do my best to make sure you fulfil your inner greed. Now, your other homunculus buds are coming for you right now as we speak." His expression became serious as he crouched down to talk to me in a more private manner. "I suggest that you get the hang of my armour and get the fullmetal midget to help you."  
"do you know when they'll attack?" I asked trying to remain as composed as possible  
"Ahaha! 'fraid I can't say." He looked around into the darkness as everything went quiet, "before I go, be sure to expect the unexpected."

"What?" I opened my eyes and entered reality again, the slight morning light dripping through the drawn curtains, Ling, Alex and Alfie had all collapsed messily on the couch, in amongst all of their junk food, the sky was still a deep blue, the sun was only just emerging from over the hills, my golden eyes could only slightly adjust to the low amount of light. I tripped over Ling as I attempted to leave the room, he moaned and then sprawled further out then fell back into a deep sleep, I rubbed my tired eyes as I made the trek to my kitchen, I checked the time on the microwave to see that it was 5 am, I couldn't believe that I was up this early, and I grabbed a glass of milk and shoved as much milo on top of it as I could, I then went outside onto the balcony and wrapped myself in a large Doona, and leaned on the railing that separated myself and a fall into the icy pool below. A cool breeze blew in my hair as I stared out at the heads, the jagged cliffs separated only by a rough sea, a scene so pure and undisturbed by anything, until a sliding noise could be heard from behind me. I turned and saw that Edward had woken up and decided to come out for some fresh air.  
"couldn't sleep huh?" I asked as he strolled up next to me.  
"Nahh, I had a weird dream and woke up suddenly, so I decided to come out and calm myself a bit." He rubbed the back of his neck with his automail hand, it made him shiver, it was a cold morning after all, I placed my thick doona around his shoulders and leaned over the rail again, taking a final gulp of my Milo.  
"So," I began, "What do you think of Australia so far?"  
"It's a nice place, personally a bit hot for me…" he sighed as he looked down at his feet  
"What's up?" I asked as I tilted my head to the side in curiosity.  
"Nothing, really." He sighed  
"c'mon you can tell me. We're blood after all." I smiled as he looked up at me, he seemed different, it was something I couldn't quite put my finger on,  
_**You're taking too long**_ an evil voice echoed from the shadows  
"just gimme a second." Edward said under his breath but I could distinctly hear what he said,  
"For what?" I asked, doubt was swelling in my heart, as well as panic and fear.  
"Nothing…" He smiled as he reached for the milo cup "Can I have some?"  
"Yeh sure." I passed it to him and he slurped at whatever milk was left. I quickly took the cup back.  
"So." I began again, this time, with my armour spreading underneath my pyjamas, "what was your name again?"  
A panicked look swept across his face, an uncharacteristic panic.  
"Edward you idiot." He laughed  
"No," I held a black claw up to his face, "I don't think that's your name…" I slashed at his face with one furious slash and he wasn't given time to dodge, taking a serious blow to the face. His face glowed and changed dramatically, it became more evil, his hair longer and darker his automail hand breaking down and becoming a regular hand.

"Envy wasn't it?"

"What? How did you figure me out?" he yelled as his face slowly healed  
"You forgot one crucial detail in your disguise." I sneered, "Edward hates milk, he don't drink it for the life of him."  
He looked frightened as I began to slash at him with my claws, dodging only a few careless throws. He was slowly heading into the darkness of the neighbouring national park, disappearing into the tall ghostly gum trees, the only light coming from the flashes occurring on envy's healing wounds. Each burst of light provided a ground in which the shadows could emerge and slowly grasp my ankles, I had no idea what danger lurked in amongst the trees. Tiny hand like shadows wrapped around my legs and up to my neck.  
'What do you think you're doing?' An eerie voice asked from the shadows. I tried to move my arms, the shadows were actually preventing me from moving, as the sun began to rise even further, a little boy was visible through the trees, he looked only 7 or 8 at most, with a serious demeanour on his face, I saw envy jump down behind the kid and laugh,  
"You honestly thought I'd be stupid enough to come by myself?" Envy laughed hysterically "You've gotta be kidding me you loser."  
"HEY! Watch your mouth you oversized worm." I spat as the shadows edged towards my jugular vein,  
'I think that you are in no position to be talking greed.' The chilling voice said as the little boy stepped closer into the dim morning light. He stepped next to the glass gate and examined it, I though that was no way he could just jump over it, when his mouth twisted to form a smile and a dark shadow ripped through the glass as it shattered into a thousand pieces. I was shocked, this little kid was the one who was controlling the shadows, and was the one who envy was with.  
_We'll be back for you_  
I recalled all of the faces that I saw with Envy's and a smaller boy appeared in my mind, this must've been him.  
'I have come to make a proposition.' The chilling voice said though the young boy. 'are you willing to listen?'  
"Do I have a choice?" I sneered  
"HA!" Envy laughed "That's a good answer…"  
'Good. I propose that you, Charles Archos, come with us.' He said calmly  
"There's got to be a catch right?" I said as the hands scratched gently at my neck  
"Yes." Envy said "You either come with us, or we'll start to kill those who are closest to you… starting with your dear Mother." He looked my in the eyes with a crazed expression, as he was laughing one of my claws suddenly latched onto his throat, tearing all of the shadowy arms, my grip was tight and filled with rage, my eyes ablaze with fury at the mere threatening to kill my family and friends.  
"Too bad I'm not gonna let that happen!" I thrust envy to the ground with one clean movement of my muscular arm, causing a dent in the cemented veranda, and I turned my rage towards the little brat, I went from a calm walk, to a brisk one, then a run and to a sprint, I yelled as I threw a fist in front of me, hoping to get the kid's face, then the shadows jumped out at me, slicing through expose skin as if it were paper. My hand quickly slammed down onto the ground and I flipped nimbly over the kid and into one of the gum trees, I caught my balance after a few seconds of fumbling, then heard the sounds of a helicopter's blades rotating in the wind. I turned my head to the right to see that we had caught the attention of a local news helicopter and I decided to lure them into the forest to get the home field advantage.  
"If you want me, then come and get me!" I shouted as I disappeared into the shadows, Envy and the kid just stood there talking for a bit and then envy decided to chase me. Through the gaps in the trees I saw that the kid turned to face the helicopter, he seemed to bow and then his shadows slowly bubbled at his face and my heart lurched as the helicopter moved in closer,  
"No…" I whispered as I began to jump nimbly though the trees and towards the helicopter, getting faster as I went, as I reached the edge of the trees, the shadows extended at lightning speed, and stabbed the centre of the helicopter. The engines died, complete silence screeched throughout the landscape,  
"NO!" I screamed as the shadows suddenly receded, the helicopter began to fall slowly, in slow motion even, those who were inside were now in grave danger, the helicopter plummeted 25 feet to the trees below, making an excruciating screech and metallic bang as it met the ground with a thud.  
'Charles Archos!' the boy began 'since you witnessed this first hand, this is what will happen to those who oppose us, and those who oppose me; Pride.' He faded into the shadows of the trees as envy's frightening cackle echoed throughout the wilderness.

I rushed to the site of the crash, the helicopter resembled hat of swiss cheese in it's appearance, it's radio sounding many panicked voices and buzzing, as I rushed to the aid of those inside, an arm slumped out from the broken window, it was covered in blood with shards of glass stuck into it, on closer inspection it was the pilot who had been knocked unconscious by the fall and had numerous glass shards in his torso. I ran over and pulled out pieces of metal to make access to him easier so I could pull him out, as I lay him on the ground, I heard a faint cry,  
"h…help…me please!" a distressed voice cried as I scurried back to the wreckage, I saw a woman and a man in the passenger seats, one nearly crushed by dented metal, the other, it was too gruesome to say… the woman was gasping for air, she was nearing her limit, the man however was not moving, his entire midsection had been torn up in the attack and he wasn't looking too good.  
"Hang on!" I said  
"there… is…a phone… in… the cockpit.." she gasped  
"Okay but first I need to get you out!" I could feel tears welling up as I began to pull on the metal,  
"it's no…use kid…you can't…" she cried, tears streaming down fading eyes  
"YES I CAN!" I screamed as the armour extended along my arms and instantly the metal gave way, allowing me to pull her out safely, I placed her on the ground next to the pilot, she was still gasping for air and as I reached for the other guy, I checked his pulse…  
"c'mon!" I said not being able to feel anything, his skin was getting colder, more and more so with each passing moment, his eyes were closed, a peaceful expression on his face, he was still, nothing moved, not even his heart. Tears flowed from my eyes, not stopping, furiously running down my cheeks, "DON'T BE DEAD DAMNIT!"


	11. 11 little paper note

I hung my head in defeat, this was all my fault… if I wasn't here, then these people wouldn't have had to suffer… a cold hand rested on one of my broad shoulders.  
"it's not your fault sweetie." The woman said, she had regained her breath and only had a few cuts here and there, "he's gone… there's nothing we can do to bring him back."  
she stood up and wobbled towards the cockpit and made a request for a rescue helicopter, I pulled the body out from the helicopter and laid him on the ground, I leaned over him, grieving over the tragic loss, buried my face in my hands, not wanting to face the death of a man, not wanting to face the fact that it was my fault.  
"A rescue helicopter is coming for us now." She sighed calmly as she hiccupped. I looked at her face to see that she was crying as well, she looked at me and smiled awkwardly "Thanks for saving me."  
"You shouldn't be thanking me…" I wept trying to wipe my face, I wasn't very manly, well it's quite hard to be when you've caused someone else's death… "I'm the one who… who's responsible!"  
"Of course you're not! It was… that thing." She gasped slightly, trying to hold back her tears, "I'm sorry." I looked at the man, he was lifeless, but I still felt compelled to stop the bleeding, so I tore up part of the upholstery from the seats in the helicopter and wrapped it tightly around his midsection.  
"I just thought we'd be doing the morning weather!" she wailed, looking away from her injured and lifeless colleagues. "I wasn't expecting this to happen!"  
"Nobody could've expected it… even I didn't." I sighed as I heard the faint sound of two or three helicopters coming to help the reporter. "The helicopters are here, I have to go now." I sighed as I disappeared briskly into the trees. I watched from the safe distance of my balcony, the crash happened quite close to my house and the three helicopters were making quite the racket.  
"Charlie, what is going on out here?" My dad asked as he came out to investigate, my mum followed him closely as tears spilled over my eyes,  
"Promise you'll never leave me!" I wailed as I gripped the back of their dressing robes tightly, burying my head into their chests,  
"Charlie! Of course we won't!" My dad said as he pulled me off of him, I just didn't want the other homunculi to come back. "what happened to make you say that?"  
I looked at my feet, I couldn't tell them that they were in danger, that they were gonna be killed because of me, I just collapsed to my knees and wailed some more.  
"Charlie…" Mum wrapped her arms around me, desperately trying to calm me down, this is when everybody else ran out to see what the commotion was, they saw the smoke coming out from the trees, and Alex rushed over to me and helped me to my feet, I sniffed, wiping my red eyes trying to be strong, but the tears just kept coming…  
"Did you have something to do with this?" he asked quietly in my ear, as I reluctantly nodded, my face was now completely drained of all emotions, and he looked panicked as he took a step backwards and put his hands on my shoulders "Charlie, you have to be more careful!"  
"you did this?" Mum looked frightened as she looked at me,  
" I didn't…" I stammered  
"The other homunculi." Ling sneered, "they did it, they're still here." He said as he looked sternly into the national park.  
"they're here as well…" Edward growled, he turned his head to the crash site, "Ling. Can you tell which ones?" he asked as he hunched over the rail way, glaring at the smoke coming from the wreckage.  
"There's one with a peculiarly calm presence, yet it is overwhelming…" he sighed deep in concentration, "and an extremely dense being… see, it's dented the pavement here." He ran his fingers over it, and his eyes widened in fear. "Edward." He said  
"Whut?" Edward said as he walked over briskly, ling pulled him in closer so that nobody else would listen to their conversation,  
"look at this."

Ling picked up a small piece of paper that had been squished in between some cracks in the pavement, Edward quickly snatched it and unfolded it, to his horror it read:  
_**We have Alphonse.**_  
Ling struggled to read it as fast as Edward had and he quickly shoved it into his pocket and buried his face in his hands, he hunched over the crack in frustration and trembled in rage.  
"Edward. We'll get him back." Ling said as he noticed a slight rustling in the trees, and Edward stood up in anticipation for a battle, when two dark figures jumped out from the dense forest.  
"Young master!" and old man said as the two masked figures knelt in front of him.  
"Oh it's good to see you two again." He smiled slightly as he turned to both me and my friends. "I hope you wouldn't mind, but I must take my leave."  
"You'll come back right?" My mother asked out of concern  
"Perhaps." He smiled goofily "If there's a meal in it for me!"  
"Sure." I smiled as the three of them dashed immediately into the tall trees with no noise what so ever.  
"Charlie," My dad sighed "Why don't we go back inside and talk about what happened okay?"  
"Fine."  
"Edward you coming?" Alfie asked as Edward just stood staring in the direction of the flames. He stood there in silence, not answering for a while. "Ed?"  
"Yeah. I'm coming." He sighed as he shoved his hands into his pockets and shuffled back into the house. Alfie noticed there was something off about him, how he seemed to be planning something.

I slumped down onto the couch and put my face into my hands, Alex came in and he decided to watch the TV, he clicked it onto the news and the news reporter shuffled his cards and set them down onto the desk.  
"Now, we have some breaking news. One of our own Helicopters crashed on a job out in National Park area, it's crew of three were in the helicopter at the time and two of it's members are critically injured whilst one member unfortunately passed away. Air crash investigators are puzzled at the state of the crash and are currently examining the final video of it's crew. Join us at 7:30 for the next session of the news."  
Everybody's eyes widened as I remembered the pilot, reporter and cameraman.  
"Charlie?" Edward asked "Was one of the homunculi who attacked you Envy?"  
"yes…" I sighed  
"You were attacked? Oh my poor baby!" Mum cried out as she smothered me even more  
"What did the other one look like?" He asked with a serious look in his eyes, it scared me quite a bit. It took me a while to answer, "What did the other look like?"  
"Easy Edward!" Alex shouted back "He's been through a lot."  
"A small kid," I said recalling the homunculus' young appearance "About 7 or 8, he had dark hair and deep blue eyes, and I remember he said that he was, Pride."  
Edward quickly span his head to the side, his eyes widened in panic. "Selim Bradley…" He growled again, he then walked briskly back into his room Muttering to himself as the door slammed shut.


End file.
